Michael Zerafa praises lost mate Dwight Ritchie’s family for their support
Michael Zerafa will forever carry the tragic memory of the day his friend Dwight Ritchie died during a sparring session. But the love of Ritchie’s family has convinced him to keep fighting.
Boxing/MMA
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Michael Zerafa will on Monday visit the very moment every boxer fears, the funeral of a friend who died in the ring.
He will travel to Shepparton to pay his respects to Dwight Ritchie’s family — the same people who have constantly reached out to Zerafa since the tragic November 9 day when Ritchie collapsed during the sixth round of a sparring session between the pair in East Keilor.
A similar session to what the decade-long friends had shared over 1000 previous times, just a couple of Australian boxers trying to scale the heights in a sport that doesn’t play favourites.
For Zarafa, a politely-spoken 27-year-old with a world championship dream, he had to make a call on his future, including a rematch on December 18 against Jeff Horn, a man Zerafa reduced to a stumbling mess back in August.
His initial thoughts were naturally jumbled.
He had witnessed paramedics as they worked unsuccessfully to revive Ritchie after a seemingly innocuous body shot. Then came the clarity he sought and it came from an unlikely source.
“I’ve had so much support from Dwight’s family and without it I’m sure I couldn’t have pushed forward. They have been fabulous, seeing how I am, if I needed anything, just great,” Zerafa said this week before another training session in the same ring where Ritchie died.
“I have been lucky enough to meet a few of Dwight’s extended family. Their love and support has been amazing, just great people like Dwight. I’m trying to be mentally strong and accept it was a tragic incident, but nothing is going to bring him back, sadly.
“I know Dwight would want me to fight. His family wants me to fight. I want to fight and my teams wants me to fight. So I will get on with it. But at the same time I will always remember the good times, the mutual love and respect we shared.”
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Before their fateful spar, “Pretty Boy” Zerafa and “Fighting Cowboy” Ritchie engaged in their normal banter before they produced typically high quality work. They each gave and took no quarter.
Both careers were booming. Zerafa had reached No.6 in the world on the Pro Boxing Middleweight Ratings while Ritchie had recently lost a close fight to the highly-promising Sydney-based super welterweight Tim Tszyu.
“Neither of us ever took a backward step and that day Dwight seemed fit and healthy, as he always did,” Zerafa said.
“It was just a sad and tragic day, something you just don’t expect to happen. Now we just want to do whatever we can to help his family.”
Ritchie’s immediate family includes his girlfriend and three children, a group for which a GoFundMe page has raised more than $52,000. Zerafa will dedicate his upcoming Horn fight to the memory of Ritchie.
As to how he will be when he steps back in the ring can only be answered by time, for while boxing claims many victims after retirement though pugilistic dementia and the like, there are few ring deaths.
Zerafa is conscious of always keeping himself near his 72.5kg middleweight limit, so he never puts his body in highly dangerous zones which can be accelerated through dehydration that comes with weight loss. He’s also an advocate for referees or corners knowing when to stop fights.
“In my first fight with Jeff Horn, I knew he was in real trouble when he went down, and I actually motioned to the referee for him to stop the fight,” Zerafa said. “I pointed to Jeff, but it wasn’t my job. I was like a shark seeing blood and I just wanted to end it.
“The same thing will happen again, it will be no different. In that first fight Jeff kept dropping his head every time I double jabbed, he just didn’t want to be there. He knows and I know.”